I remember the building housed Indianapolis Metal Spinning when I lived in the West Indianapolis neighborhood in the late 70’s early 80’s. It was two doors from the corner. Do not think the building was that old. It still looked like a theater. I think it was where the driveway is now. Demolished around 2010. I read a pamphlet about theater organs in Indianapolis that mentioned a theater at the corner of Blaine and Howard. There is an existing brick building that has the outline of an early theater in it’s flatened face.

That would be the Hilltop Theater, 1401 Blaine Avenue. It’s in the 1916 City Directory; the American Theater Organ Society’s list shows it operating in 1927.

The Street View above shows the SW corner; if you rotate it you can see the brick building on the SE corner. That’s where Google Maps put 1401 (numbers increase going south with odds on the east side), but I can’t read any address numbers in the street view.

“Two doors from the corner”… west on Howard from Blaine, right?

I may wander down and take a look. I wonder if there are any oldtimers at St.John’s who remember the neighborhood.